This invention relates to a new and improved tire lift/carrier. Its embodiments feature a reel assembly which is simple and economical to fabricate, more efficient and satisfactory in use and unlikely to malfunction. In its embodiment to provide a tire lift/carrier it provides a solution to problems which have heretofore existed in this particular art. It will therefore be so described for purpose of illustration but not by way of limitation either as to the form of its embodiment or its application.
The storage of a spare wheel in a truck has always been a problem. Designers have found it exceedingly difficult to mount the spare wheel so as to make it accessible and easy to retrieve and replace. A partial solution to the problems in this respect was found in the advent of the manufacture and use of a chain-type hoist to use as a tire lift/carrier. However, such devices as previously contrived have proven to be relatively costly to fabricate and a burden on the manipulator in that they are heavy in weight and cumbersome in use and less than satisfactory in their operation. Their construction has oftentimes been such to lead to jamming of their parts or weakening of their supports due to their inadvertent misoperation by untrained personnel. By contrast, the tire lift/carriers of the present invention can be simply operated by the most inexperienced of persons, and without serious danger to the manipulator and negligible chance of damage to the equipment involved.